Prices of imported and locally assembled cars increased again

Government’s policy to implement Euro-II emissions standards in locally assembled had led local auto assemblers to increase prices by 75,000 PKR in late June but another increase in prices have been made today owing to weak Pakistani Rupee against US dollar and Japanese Yen.

This new rise in prices is however not limited to cars only locally assembled but the weak currency’s impact has triggered importers to jack up the prices as well.

On July 2, 2011 Suzuki Mehran VX was available at Rs467,000 which is now priced at Rs555, 000; Mehran VXR now sells at Rs607,000 as compared to Rs519,000 in July, 2011; Cultus VXR is now available at Rs965,000 as compared to Rs865,000; Bolan VX petrol and Ravi Petrol are priced at Rs634, 000 and Rs582, 000 as compared to Rs546,000 and Rs494,000, respectively; Suzuki Liana’s manual transmission is now sold at Rs1,382,000 as compared to Rs1,170,000.

Suzuki APV 1.5L petrol was available at Rs1,859,000 in July, 2011 as compared to its current price of Rs2,099,000; Swift RS DX is now available at Rs1,131,000 as compared to Rs984,000. Suzuki Jimny JLX now sells at Rs2,074,000 as compared to Rs1,824,000.

Honda Civic VTi manual and Oriel are now priced at Rs1,851,000 and Rs2,043,000 as compared to Rs1,705,000 and Rs1,890,000 in July 2011; City Ivtec manual transmission now sells at Rs1,497,000 as compared to Rs1,354,000 in July 2011.

Toyota Corolla Xli’s price has been raised to Rs1,534,000 as compared to Rs1,379,000 on July 2, 2011; while Corolla GLi is now sold at Rs1,669,000 as compared to Rs1,482,000 in July 2011.

Analysts believe that there are few reason for the increase in prices while one was the weak currency, the other was increase in rates of ocean freight in importing completely knocked down (CKD) kits from abroad as well as the industry also suffered the cost of running their factories on generators in view of load shedding while there was also an increase in the wages of the workers.

They also sighted that auto assemblers have increased their profit margins as well.